How Democrats Can Capitalize off of Republicans’ Health Care Failures

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Trumpcare is dead. The author of the ‘Art of the Deal’ couldn’t close a deal. Trump wants to move on from health care and set his sights on things he sees as more formidable such as tax reform, or infrastructure. Repealing Obamacare is something Republicans have been nonstop campaigning on for 8 years and passed a repeal Obamacare bill 50+ times while Obama was president. And now when they had essentially all the cards in their pile, they collapsed. This shows that they weren’t serious about the repealment bill that they continuously passed while Obama was president, knowing full well that he would veto a repealment his signature legislation of his 8 year tenure.

Democrats shouldn’t just be happy with the status quo, they should be looking forward to progression of health care legislation and go left. Obamacare isn’t a perfect piece of legislation, and there are two viable alternatives that they should go after: single payer or the public option. My recommendation would be to join the rest of the industrialized world in guaranteeing health care to all citizens as a right and go forward by trying to push for comprehensive single payer legislation. While single payer might be historically not popular on Capitol Hill, the American people are for it overwhelmingly. A poll done by Pew Research Center as recently as January touts that 60 percent of Americans believe the government has a “responsibility” to ensure healthcare access. This poll matches the 2015 Kaiser Health poll, which states that 58% of Americans believe and support in a system called “Medicare for All”. States like California are aggressively pushing towards a single player health care system, but the best option for a single payer system would work in would be full on nationalization. Democratic Socialists of America have tripled its membership in the past year, and this is a great feat especially when considering the recent fluctuating rise in Western right wing politics. Bernie Sanders who has brought this issue to the forefront, is the most popular politician in America. And, there are already over 70+ house democrats who have sponsored a Medicare for all style legislation in this current congressional session.
Democrats can pressure Trump with video evidence of him saying he supported universal health care during the Republican Primaries and said that we won’t be having people dying on the streets while the government does nothing. He also touted on Twitter in 2015 that he was the only potential republican nominee who stated there wouldn’t be any cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It is clear that the American people do not support a far right wing approach to health care. Especially Trumpcare, which only had 17% support among Americans and according to a CBO study would of thrown 24 million Americans off of health insurance. Trump’s approvals have sunk to 36%. Throw a bone at Trump and offer up single payer or at the very least the public option. Let him stick his name on it and say he originated this idea, whatever you have to do — just do it.